What A Day!

Well, yesterday was…something else J We traveled to another city about 2.5 hours away to register with the federal police.  We got there to find out the official who could help us was not in today and we would have to come back.  We decided to register for our CPF numbers while we were there (it’s an identification number down here) and were able to do so successfully.  Then we went to the mall to eat lunch and shop in a few stores which had more of a selection/better prices than the shops here in our town.  We went to a supermarket, an ‘American’ store, an appliance store, and a sort-of Brazilian Wal-Mart equivalent (although much scaled down).  Though we didn’t buy too much, we got some things like: diapers, pillows, liquid detergent (they only have powdered here), baking and cooking supplies, and a coffee maker.  We left around ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­3:30pm and though we were pretty tired, we had had a good day.  Nick and I were enjoying the drive, which is BEAUTIFUL, and Carter even took a nap in the backseat.  It was raining, but that’s an everyday occurrence here.  Then, as we were making our way up one of the many hills, our car broke down.  We’re talking dead.  Ka-put.   Fortunately we were carpooling with our supervisors who were able to pull over to help us.  Long story short, we’re not exactly sure what happened (our best guess is something is wrong with the fuel pump), but we knew we needed a tow.  One supervisor went to the nearest town (about 15k away)  to use a phone to try and find someone to help (Nick and I don’t have phones yet, and our supervisors’ phone didn’t have service).  In the meantime, as Nick, our other supervisor (his wife), Carter, and I waited on the side of the road in the rain, four people stopped to try and help us J But since we didn’t need gas, no one really could.  The police came by and said they would go to the town to try and find our supervisor.  Well, he came back and was not able to get any help, so his wife and I went back to town with Carter to try and find a tow and left the boys with the car.  We called someone from another town who agreed to pick them up, but drove back the 15k to tell them we had found a truck, before we headed back the 40k to finally reach our city.  I got into our apartment at 9 with Carter and a bunch of shopping bags and fed him a superfast late dinner before tucking him into bed around 9:30.  Nick joined us around 10:30 after the car had been successfully delivered to a mechanic.

Hopefully our return trip to register with the police is a little more mundane.  It’s always an adventure with the Srokas…